"it was necessary to obtain it any cost. In ancient Egyptian religion, bulls symbolized strength and male sexuality and were linked with aggressive deities such as Montu and virile deities such as Min. Some Egyptian cities kept sacred bulls that were said to be incarnations of divine powers, including the Mnevis bull, Buchis bull, and the Apis bull, which was regarded as a manifestation of the god Ptah and was the most important sacred animal in Egypt. Cows were connected with fertility and motherhood. One of several ancient Egyptian creation myths said that a cow goddess, Mehet-Weret, who represented the"
"fighting bull, while Shennong Yandi is more peaceful and has the horns of a plowing buffalo. He is the manifestation of the supreme God associated with the essence of fire; his animal form is the Red Dragon (朱龙 ""Zhūlóng"") and his stellar animal is the phoenix. He is the god of agriculture, animal husbandry, medicinal plants and market. In broader conceptualisation, he is the god of science and craft, and the patron of doctors and apothecaries. His astral body is Mars. ""Báidì"" (白帝 ""White Emperor"" or ""White Deity"") or ""Báishén"" (白神 ""White God""), also known as the ""Xīdì"" (西帝 ""West"
"a manifestation of the king, as bulls were symbols of strength and fertility, qualities that are closely linked with kingship. ""strong bull of his mother Hathor"" was a common title for Egyptian gods and male kings, being unused for women serving as king, such as Hatshepsut. As early as the time of the Narmer Palette, the king is depicted with a bovine tail on one side, and a bull is seen knocking down the walls of a city on the other. Occasionally, Apis was pictured with the sun-disk symbol of his mother, Hathor, between his horns, being one of few"
"a religious concept of life-force/power and the word for bull. Mnevis was identified as being a living bull. This may be a vestige of the sacrifice of kings after a period of reign, who were seen as the sons of Bat or Hathor (see:horned goddess Hathor), the ancient cow deity of the early solar cults. Thus, seen as a symbol of the later sun god, Ra, the Mnevis was often depicted, in art, with the solar disc of their mother, Hathor between its horns. The Canaanite deity Moloch (according to the bible) was often depicted as a bull, and became"
"in its appearance in the zodiac as Taurus, and its numerous appearances in mythology, where it is often associated with fertility. See also Korban. In Hinduism, a bull named Nandi, usually depicted seated, is worshipped as the vehicle of the god Shiva and depicted on many of the images of that God. Symbolically, the bull appears commonly in heraldry, and, in modern times, as a mascot for both amateur and professional sports teams. Bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ""Bos taurus"" (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the female of the species,"
"by archaeological evidence. The earliest and largest of all animal cults, the Apis bull cult considered the bull to be a symbol of strength and fertility, representing the creator gods Ptah and Osiris. Mummification was a key part in the worshipping of these animals. While alive, the bull would be housed in a special temple, lavishly pampered for its entire life. Priests believed that the Apis bull was a medium of communication between the two creator gods, so its movements were carefully observed and sometimes consulted as an oracle. These sacred animals were allowed to die a natural death unless"
"Buchis In Egyptian mythology, Buchis (also spelt Bakh and Bakha) was the deification of the kꜣ (""power, life-force"", Egyptological pronunciation ""ka"") of the war god Montu as a sacred bull that was worshipped in the region of Hermonthis. A wild bull was chosen and said to be the Buchis incarnation of Montu, in which role it was worshipped as such. Over time, the criteria for choosing the bull became more rigid, fixing themselves on what had been simply the general appearance of bulls in the region, being a white body and black face. When these bulls, or their mothers, died,"
"are V-shaped, and two bulls, treading river-like rays, occupy the divisions thus formed. There are also two heads—a lion's and a man's—with gaping mouths, which may symbolize tempests, the destroying power of the sun, or the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Jastrow regards the winged disc as ""the purer and more genuine symbol of Ashur as a solar deity.” He calls it, “a sun disc with protruding rays,"" and says, ""to this symbol the warrior with the bow and arrow was added—a despiritualization that reflects the martial spirit of the Assyrian empire."" Adad was the weather god in"
"Lamassu A lamassu (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: lammař; Akkadian: ""lamassu""; sometimes called a lamassus) is an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a human head, the body of a bull or a lion, and bird wings. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity. A less frequently used name is shedu (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: alad; Akkadian, ""šēdu""; ), which refers to the male counterpart of a ""lamassu"". ""Lammasu"" represent the zodiacs, parent-stars or constellations. In art, ""lamassu"" were depicted as hybrids, with bodies of either winged bulls or lions and heads of human males. The"
"is the very seed of creation<br> 212.Sanayugaapeedavaahanaaay, The Lord has a bull for His vehicle and that bull embellishes the Lord's flag in battle<br> 213.Tikshanataapaay, The Lord is Agni, One who has performed the greatest austerities Tikshana means sharp<br> 214.Haryashvaay, The Lord is Surya (Sun) who has green horses yoked to His vehicle<br> 215.Sahaay, The Lord is a friend, companion of the Jiva<br> 216.Karmakaalavidae, The Lord is the knower of the proper time for the accomplishment of all acts<br> 217.Vishnuprasaaditaay, To whom Lord Vishnu adores, who is dear to Vishnu, who bestows grace on Vishnu<br> 218.Yagnaay, The Lord is the"
"a religious concept of life-force/power and the word for bull. We cannot recreate a specific context for the bull skulls with horns (""bucrania"") preserved in an 8th millennium BCE sanctuary at Çatalhöyük in eastern Anatolia. The sacred bull of the Hattians, whose elaborate standards were found at Alaca Höyük alongside those of the sacred stag, survived in Hurrian and Hittite mythology as Seri and Hurri (""Day"" and ""Night""), the bulls who carried the weather god Teshub on their backs or in his chariot and grazed on the ruins of cities. Bulls were a central theme in the Minoan civilization, with"
"stallions or bulls, the word ""ajysyt"" is understood to be male. However, when relating to the birth of a mare or cow, the word is feminine. One legend recalls how she appeared from the roots of the Cosmic Tree (alternatively the world pillar of Yryn-al-tojon)to a pale young man; the tree stood beside a lake of milk. By suckling the youth she caused his strength to increase a hundredfold. Aisyt was a daughter of Gok-Tengri (Sky-God) and Toprak Ana (Mother Earth) and was viewed with both fear and affection. She represented the night and was pictured as a noble woman."
"a sacrificial bull. Although there has been a great deal of speculation on the subject, the myth (i.e. the ""mystery"", the understanding of which was the basis of the cult) that the scene was intended to represent remains unknown. Because the scene is accompanied by a great number of astrological allusions, the bull is generally assumed to represent the constellation of Taurus. The basic elements of the tauroctony scene were originally associated with Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Macrobius lists the bull as an animal sacred to the god Neto/Neito, possibly being sacrifices to the deity. A prominent zoomorphic"
"man, and as a bull). The divinity takes this form during the last 10 days of every month of the Zoroastrian calendar, and also in a cosmogonical battle for control of rain. In this latter tale (""Yasht"" 8.21–29), which appears in the Avesta's hymns dedicated to Tishtrya, the divinity is opposed by Apaosha, the demon of drought, which appears as a black stallion. White horses are also said to draw divine chariots, such as that of Aredvi Sura Anahita, who is the Avesta's divinity of the waters. Representing various forms of water, her four horses are named ""wind"", ""rain"", ""clouds"""
"destinies, he made Iškur inspector of the cosmos. In one litany, Iškur is proclaimed again and again as ""great radiant bull, your name is heaven"" and also called son of Anu, lord of Karkara; twin-brother of Enki, lord of abundance, lord who rides the storm, lion of heaven. In other texts Adad/Iškur is sometimes son of the moon god Nanna/Sin by Ningal and brother of Utu/Shamash and Inanna/Ishtar. Iškur is also sometimes described as the son of Enlil. The bull was portrayed as Adad/Iškur's sacred animal starting in the Old Babylonian period (the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE)."
"Apis as an incarnation of Osiris, ignoring the connection with Ptah. Apis was the most popular of three great bull cults of ancient Egypt, the others being the cults of Mnevis and Buchis. All are related to the worship of Hathor or Bat, similar primary goddesses separated by region until unification that eventually merged as Hathor. The worship of Apis was continued by the Greeks and after them by the Romans, and lasted until almost 400 CE. This animal was chosen because it symbolized the courageous heart, great strength, and fighting spirit of the king. Apis came to being considered"
"of Indo-Iranian human and warrior gods with animal forms: among the Iranian god of victory ""V(e)r(e)thragna"" 's incarnations, seven are of animal form, including the bull, horse, boar and hawk, each of which is associated at one time or another with a ""ver sacrum"" and Roman army insignia. On the ""recto"" of coins from Campania appears a human character bearing over his head that of a boar, and on the ""verso"" the word ""ROMA"". German scholar C. Koch interprets this character as god Quirinus, since he identifies the boar, ""aper"", as the animal symbol of the god. Dumézil remarks that"
"The prophet Ezekiel wrote about a fantastic being made up of aspects of a human being, a lion, an eagle and a bull. Later, in the early Christian period, the four Gospels were ascribed to each of these components. When it was depicted in art, this image was called the Tetramorph. The British 10th Army, which operated in Iraq and Iran in 1942–1943, adopted the ""lamassu"" as its insignia. A bearded man with a winged bull body appears on the logo of the United States Forces – Iraq. A man with a bull's body is found among the creatures that"
"with that of Baal and ""Rukuruku"" with Ashtoreth, the ancient deities signifying the creative and the productive powers of nature – e.g. ruku (the feminine) and sina (native spear grass) the masculine symbol. Thus the name ""Nairukuruku"" has a relationship and significance to the clans creative totemic symbols towards the feminine fertility. The chiefly clan's totemic plant and animal, the ""Vico"" – native spear grass and the ""Vo loa"" – black mud fish is the living heathen symbols to the tribes masculinity and warrior class. Traditionally the Yavusa Siko is ""bati"" and protectors of the feminine totemic tribes representing fertility"
"that Montu manifested himself as a white, black-snouted bull named Buchis (hellenization of the original Bakha: a living bull revered in Armant) — to the point that, in the Late Period (7th/4th century BC), Montu was depicted with a bull's head too. This special sacred bull had dozens of servants and wore precious crowns and bibs. Besides the ""solar"" assimilation with Ra and Atum, Montu was sometimes equated with Set, god of violence and chaos, perhaps to counterbalance a circumstantial negativity of the latter. In Egyptian art, Montu was depicted as a falcon-headed or bull-headed man, with his head surmounted"
"though soldiers in Roman legions adopted it and spread it far into the west from its eastern origins, the Mithraic monument (""Mithrasdenkmal"") represents a peculiarity. It is a religious icon that was originally part of a temple in a Roman settlement. Riding on a fleeing bull is the Persian god and personification of heavenly light, Mithra, stabbing the bull in the neck, accompanied by a lion, a dog, a snake and a scorpion. Above in a semicircular arch are the sun god and the moon goddess. The youngling killing the bull stands between the god of everlasting light, Ahuramazda (the"
"of Actium. This building substituted the older temple, which in its turn substituted a more ancient altar. Neptune is one of only four Roman gods to whom it was appropriate to sacrifice bulls, the other three being Apollo, Mars and Jupiter, although Vulcan was also allowed the offering of a red bull and a red bull calf. The wrong offering would require a piaculum if due to inadvertency or necessity. The type of the offering implies a stricter connection between the deity and the worldly realm. During the war with Veii in 393 BC the level of Lake Albano (""Albanus"
"Ga is based on the movements of the tiger and the crane. In Imperial China, a tiger was the personification of war and often represented the highest army general (or present day defense secretary), while the emperor and empress were represented by a dragon and phoenix, respectively. The White Tiger () is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West (), and it represents the west and the autumn season. In Buddhism, the tiger is one of the Three Senseless Creatures, symbolising anger, with the monkey representing greed and"
"4:7, where the throne of God is described: ""And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle."" Later decks avoid such overt Christian symbolism, or ignore it altogether, choosing to explain these observers as representatives of the natural world, or the kingdom of beasts. According to astrological tradition, the Lion is Leo, a fire sign; the Bull or calf is Taurus, an earth sign; the Man is Aquarius, an air sign; and the Eagle is"
"burials of bulls indicate that ritual sacrifice was part of the worship of the early cow deities, Hathor and Bat, and a bull might represent her offspring, a king who became a deity after death. He was entitled ""the renewal of the life"" of the Memphite deity Ptah: but after death he became Osorapis, i.e. the Osiris Apis, just as dead humans were assimilated to Osiris, the ruler of the underworld. This Osorapis was identified with Serapis of the late Hellenistic period and may well be identical with him. Creating parallels to their own religious beliefs, ancient Greek writers identified"
"expansion release. A Lammasu briefly appears in the ""Fablehaven"" series. In the video-game Might And Magic Heroes VI the ""lamassu"" (though with only one S) is a recruitable elite creature of the necropolis faction (undead). Lamassu A lamassu (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: lammař; Akkadian: ""lamassu""; sometimes called a lamassus) is an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a human head, the body of a bull or a lion, and bird wings. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity. A less frequently used name is shedu (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: alad; Akkadian, ""šēdu""; ), which refers"
"bull is familiar in Judeo-Christian cultures from the Biblical episode wherein an idol of the golden calf (() is made by Aaron and worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula (Book of Exodus). The text of the Hebrew Bible can be understood to refer to the idol as representing a separate god, or as representing Yahweh himself, perhaps through an association or religious syncretism with Egyptian or Levantine bull gods, rather than a new deity in itself. Among the Twelve Olympians, Hera's epithet ""Bo-opis"" is usually translated ""ox-eyed"" Hera, but the term could just as well"
"spears of religious significance are the Holy Lance and the Lúin of Celtchar, believed by some to have vast mystical powers. Sir James George Frazer in ""The Golden Bough"" noted the phallic nature of the spear and suggested that in the Arthurian Legends the spear or lance functioned as a symbol of male fertility, paired with the Grail (as a symbol of female fertility). The Hindu god Murugan, known as ""God of war"" is worshipped by Tamils in the form of the spear called ""Vel"", which is the primary weapon of the God. The term ""spear"" is also used (in"
"the animal. It must have had significance to the cult myth (a mystery cult's myth is that cult's ""mystery"") that would have been transmitted to devotees, but what that myth might have been is unknown. The bull had a long association with concepts of strength, virility and fertility, and was identified in Hellenistic Asia Minor with Nike/Victoria. Bulls also appear frequently in the furnishings of the cult's temples. At the temple to Jupiter Dolichenus at the Zugmantel, a Roman cohort post on the Upper Limes Germanicus near present-day Taunusstein, Germany, the altar table was supported by legs carved in the"
"Taurus was a sacred bull that was associated with the renewal of life in spring. When the spring equinox entered Taurus, the constellation would become covered by the Sun in the western sky as spring began. This ""sacrifice"" led to the renewal of the land. To the early Hebrews, Taurus was the first constellation in their zodiac and consequently it was represented by the first letter in their alphabet, Aleph. In Greek mythology, Taurus was identified with Zeus, who assumed the form of a magnificent white bull to abduct Europa, a legendary Phoenician princess. In illustrations of Greek mythology, only"
"Ten Bulls Ten Bulls or Ten Ox Herding Pictures (十牛; Chinese: ""shíniú"" Japanese: ""jūgyū"", korean: ""sipwoo"") is a series of short poems and accompanying drawings used in the Zen tradition to describe the stages of a practitioner's progress toward enlightenment, and his or her return to society to enact wisdom and compassion. The calf, bull or ox is one of the earliest similes for meditation practice. It comes from the Maha Gopalaka Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 33). It is also used in the commentaries, especially the one on the Maha Satipahna Sutta (Digha Nikaya 22) and the Satipahna Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya"
"Bir Kuar Bir Kuar or Birkuar (IAST: Bir-kuār), also known as Birnath, is a Hindu cattle-god worshipped by the herder-class of Ahirs of western Bihar in India. He is considered to be a form of god Krishna. He is worshipped in form of wooden posts that depict him standing arms-akimbo. Bir Kuar is honoured as the protector of cattle and the god who infuses fertility in cattle. Bir Kuar's legend deals with the opposition between the cattle and the tiger and also impalement themes. He is attended by a Muslim attendant and a dog. Bir Kuar is also called to"
"who appear under Greek names as seven daughters called the ""Titanides"" or ""Artemides"" and two sons named ""Pothos"" ""Longing"" (as in πόθος, lust) and ""Eros"" ""Desire"". Later with Elus' consent, Astarte and Hadad reign over the land together. Astarte puts the head of a bull on her own head to symbolize Her sovereignty. Wandering through the world, Astarte takes up a star that has fallen from the sky (a meteorite) and consecrates it at Tyre. Ashteroth Karnaim (Astarte was called Ashteroth in the Hebrew Bible) was a city in the land of Bashan east of the Jordan River, mentioned in"